Ruth Barnett

Ruth Barnett was an abortionist operating in Portland, Oregon from 1918 to 1968. She was born in Hood River, Oregon, in 1895, and died in December 1969 of melanoma.[1]

Barnett went by the nickname "Dr. Ruth", and because she was a trained naturopath, she was legally entitled to use the title, "doctor".[2] Since her clinic advertised that it treated only "diseases of women", the fact that all her patients were female was not in itself enough to draw undue attention.[2] She performed an estimated 40,000 abortions and claimed no maternal deaths.[1]

Barnett co-authored an autobiography, They Weep on My Doorstep, in which she indicated that she performed abortions on as many as fifty women a day.[2]